By Kenneth Cross
ORLANDO, Fla. – Spurs rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama made his first trip to Florida as the newest NBA icon, but the Spurs fell, 127-111, to the Orlando Magic after a loss in Miami a night earlier.
Wembanyama scored 15 points in making 6-of-12 shots in 23 minutes, but Orlando was able to limit his field goal attempts and forced him into five turnovers.
“Reading our defense and reading how he was coming across the lane, I think our guys did a great job of keeping him off balance,” noted Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley. “Franz (Wagner) got downhill a couple of times. His hesitation and he passed it off to Mo (Wagner) for a layup.”
San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich and his staff have worked on getting the young player into a position where his skills develop and many people have said that he is a much, much better player now than when he entered the league in October.
Wembanyama averages a double-double at 20.4 points and 10.3 rebounds per contest. He also is making himself known in other statistical categories as he gets an NBA league-leading 3.1 blocks per night combined with 3.2 assists.
In Thursday evening’s loss, he finished with 15 points in 23 minutes as his growth inside of the game continues.
“It’s just a developmental situation,” explained Popovich. “The challenges are teaching guys that have never really had the time to get the fundamentals in a lot of different ways. It’s development on both ends of the court.”
Wembanyama started all four quarters and played through the physicality of Orlando’s Franz Wagner, who finished the game with 34 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists as he made 13-of-17 shots from the floor.
At 7-3, Wembanyama changes plays in the paint and forces the extra pass. In the NBA, that is huge because of the speed and skill of the players which potentially can force a turnover.
“Some things take a little bit more time because they’re nuanced, but the challenges are not skipping steps and getting people to understand what it takes to win and lose and how to become a better teammate,” said Popovich.
Wembanyama has the potential to become a threat as a three-point shooter. He currently makes 30.8 percent of his threes as he has taken 221, which is third on the team. This skill can change matchups as he has shown his ability to set up teammates for scores with his passing ability.
“How to add to your skills and what you have to do to have a career in this league,” said Popovich. “A lot of these guys played a year at college and some of them two. Their coach never got a chance to teach them what they wanted to teach them.”
The unfolding of Wembanyama’s career is a close look at how an international player can come into the NBA with well-known abilities and build his skill set around the 7-3, 230-pound frame. His potential makes him an integral part of the Spurs as many teams will certainly look at when his first season of free agency begins.
Wembanyama scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in 27 minutes as San Antonio lost to Miami, 116-104. He came back with the 15 points and only one board in Thursday’s loss.
“It’s a new experience for him,” said Popovich of Wembanyama’s back-to-backs. “At some point, I think he will run out of gas; then, he gets it back again. It’s a new thing, playing four games in a week or whatever it might be.”
Mosley noted how the gameplan for Wembanyama kept him from any type of domination in the game.
“I think just recognizing and reading when he was coming across the lane,” said Mosley of the importance of the Magic’s gameplan in defending Wembanyama. “Our guys did a great job of that. Just recognizing and reading. Credit our coaches for that and going over film with these guys with that.”
Oh Yeah! The Game!: Orlando broke it open in the second quarter as the Magic outscored the Spurs, 19-4, over the last 4:12 to take a 61-44 halftime lead. Franz Wagner topped the Magic scorers with eight points and Paolo Banchero scored six points in that run.
“I liked that first half and the way in which we played defense,” said Moseley. “We guarded the ball the right way, flew around and got rebounds, contested shots. That first half, for us, was a thing of beauty defensively and the way we shared the ball. We had 16 assists at the half.”
Wagner led all scorers with 34 points while Devin Vassell, San Antonio’s second-leading scorer, paced the Spurs with 30.
Interestingly, Orlando is the 27th-best three-point shooting team of the 30 in the NBA and are tied with Memphis and Washington at 34.8 percent.
A huge advantage was the Magic hitting 16-of-27 triples as Franz Wagner, Wendell Carter, Jr., and Jalen Suggs had three each. Carter hit two over the first five minutes of the third quarter as Orlando built its biggest lead at 80-57.
Vassell’s Vessel of Scoring: Former Florida State star Devin Vassell was held scoreless in the first half and then scored 23 of his 30 points in the third quarter. He scored 11 in a row over the last 5:23 to allow San Antonio to cut its deficit as low as 93-83 on a Blake Wesley layup with 1:15 remaining.
Vassell came into the game behind Wembanyama as San Antonio’s second-leading scorer as he averages 18.9 points per game while shooting 47 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from three.